Thursday, October 2, 2008
Monday, December 10, 2007
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Technology
A few weeks ago the ALIA-VIC listserve sent a link to an article in The Age about print on demand books - it caught my interest.....here is part of the article
"Bookstores and publishers are worried that increasingly powerful computers, realistic video games, and an all-pervasive internet spell trouble for the future of such a decidedly low-tech object as a book.
But a machine on display at a New York City library offers a glimpse of a different digital destiny.
Whirring and clattering in a corner near the check-out desk, the glass-enclosed contraption takes only a few minutes to turn a computer file into a collection of pages printed with words and bound between a stiff paper cover.
In other words, a book.
Any book in existence could be printed out in a matter of minutes, provided there was a digital file of it. As a result, book lovers would no longer be stymied in their search for a certain title if it were out of print.....
The device, called the Espresso Book Machine, uses a black-and-white printer to produce the pages of a book from a PDF file, one of the most common digital formats. While that copier spits out the pages, a colour copier prints the cover on heavier stock.
"Maybe they could also do other things like increase the font size of the type for people who have bad eyesight."
In a recent demonstration at the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business library, the Espresso produced a copy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 5 minutes."
"Bookstores and publishers are worried that increasingly powerful computers, realistic video games, and an all-pervasive internet spell trouble for the future of such a decidedly low-tech object as a book.
But a machine on display at a New York City library offers a glimpse of a different digital destiny.
Whirring and clattering in a corner near the check-out desk, the glass-enclosed contraption takes only a few minutes to turn a computer file into a collection of pages printed with words and bound between a stiff paper cover.
In other words, a book.
Any book in existence could be printed out in a matter of minutes, provided there was a digital file of it. As a result, book lovers would no longer be stymied in their search for a certain title if it were out of print.....
The device, called the Espresso Book Machine, uses a black-and-white printer to produce the pages of a book from a PDF file, one of the most common digital formats. While that copier spits out the pages, a colour copier prints the cover on heavier stock.
"Maybe they could also do other things like increase the font size of the type for people who have bad eyesight."
In a recent demonstration at the New York Public Library's Science, Industry and Business library, the Espresso produced a copy of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 5 minutes."
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
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